Zappos is an online store that sells apparel and
footwear. The company’s portfolio includes product categories such as shoes,
clothing items, beauty products, bags and handbags, accessories, housewares,
and gift cards. Zappos.com, Inc. was formerly known as Shoesite.com and changed
its name to Zappos.com, Inc. in June 1999. The name comes from “Zapatos”, which
means shoes in Spanish. Founded in 1999 and based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Zappos.com,
Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc.
As one of the largest online retailers, Zappos is under constant
pressure to keep traffic coming to their website, and clicking through
different pages until they find the products they ultimately want to purchase
in a quick, yet efficient manner.
In 2011when Zappos
began mass-scaling online videos and focusing on efficient key word usage, the
online shoe retailer achieved superior exposure among its target audience. With
a test of more than 21,000 shoe-related keywords, SundaySky (Creator of
Smartvideo) found that more than 8% of these combinations brought searchers to
Zappos product videos that highlighted the merchant’s offerings. According to one source, Zappos
experienced an increase of more than 77,000 site visits per month after
adopting video SEO, versus a previous average click-through rate for text
pages. It was also reported that the value of visits based on the tested
keywords and search engine marketing (SEM) traffic totaled more than $500,000
in revenue. According to DigitalSherpa,
website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail after
watching a video.
Not only is Zappos a powerhouse in using YouTube videos
to drive SEO initiatives, but also the company has successfully leveraged
social media (specifically Facebook) to get 85,000 visits to its website from Facebook
in 2013. According to Bryan Eisenberg, a marketing ROI expert, the average
conversion rate for retail is 2% to 3%, whereas Kenshoo reported that for one
particular post, Zappos got a 3.5% click-through rate and a 3.4% conversion
rate for a revenue per click of $4.90, which represented a 34X ROI.
The company
prides itself as a top online retailer with a CEO who is active on social media
himself. Their entire business lies in the hands of e-commerce and website
visitors. One of the most fascinating
things about the company is that they simply continue to get better at using
web analytics to grow their company. Top marketing executives at Zappos are
constantly looking for new ways to adapt their strategies to gain customers and
make the shopping experience better for their existing customers.
As stated in a
feature article written by Forbes Magazine, “Tony Hsieh and his team built a
billion dollar a year business by selling shoes online. They did it largely
without spending any money on traditional media. Instead, Zappos invested back
into its customers by doing the little extras. The extras included free
shipping both ways, overnight shipping upgrades, a 365-day return policy and
top-notch customer service.”
This exceptional
customer service combined with innovative marketing have made Zappos the
powerhouse company that it is today. Having a solid understanding of SEO and
web analytics has only helped rocket the company past their competitors and has
given customers even more reasons to visit their site and view their products.
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